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ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



RHODE-ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 



AT THE OPENING OF THEIR CABINET, 



ON WEDNESDAY, NOV. 20, 1844. 



BY WILLIAM GAMMELL, 

PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC IN BROWN UNIVERSITY. 



^ PROVIDENCE: 

B. CRANSTON AND COMPANY. 
1844. 



// 



./?o 



Providence, Nov. 21, 1844. 

Dear Sir : — At a meeting of the Rhode-Island Historical Society, 
held last evening, the undersigned were appointed a Committee to thank 
you for the Address which you yesterday delivered, on the occasion of 
the opening of the Society's new Cabinet, in Waterman street, and to 
request of you a copy for the press. 

In communicating to you, Sir, the sentiments and wishes of the Soci- 
ety, the undersigned cannot refrain from expressing their earnest desire 
that you will not withhold from the public a production which sets forth, 
in a philosophic spirit and in language truly eloquent, the noble uses 
of History, and the important purposes which the Rhode-Island Histori- 
cal Society is endeavoring to accomplish. 

Respectfully, your friends and fellow citizens, 



ALBERT G. GREENE,) 
THOMAS B. TENNER, S Committee. 
WM. G. GODDARD, ) 



William Gammell, Esq. 



Providence, Nov. 22, 1844. 
Gentlemen : — Accept my thanks for the exceedingly complimentary 
manner in which you have been pleased to communicate the request of 
the Rhode-Island Historical Society, for a copy of the Address delivered 
at the opening of the new Cabinet. Thoroughly interested as I am in 
the history of the State, and especially in the labors of the Historical 
Society, I cannot withhold a production, however unworthy, which, in 
their judgment, may increase the interest of the public in the useful and 
elevated objects to which those labors are devoted. 

I am, gentlemen, with great respect and esteem, 
Tour obedient servant, 

WILLIAM GAMMELL. 
Messrs. Albert G. Greene, ^ Committee of the R. I. 

IhOMAS B. IeNNER, > w . • TO • * 

„, --, ^ ' i Historical Society. 

Wm. G. Goddakd, ) •' 



ADDRESS. 



Gentlemen op the Historical Society : 

We have come together to celebrate an event which 
may well form an era in the history of our society — the 
completion and opening of the chaste and commodious 
structure, which is henceforth to become the permanent 
depository of our collections for Rhode-Island history. — 
The occasion, though far removed from the exciting scenes 
that ordinarily occupy the attention of men in this bust- 
ling and restless age, is yet one which holds high and im- 
portant connections with the dignity, the prosperity and 
the fame of the City and of the State. Let us then turn 
aside, for a brief time, from the engrossing occupations of 
every day life, to consider the purposes of our association, 
and, at this new altar, to kindle afresh our devotion to the 
objects to which it is to-day to be for ever consecrated. 
They are objects which intimately concern some of the 
best interests of society, and they earnestly appeal to some 
of the noblest sympathies of our intellectual and spiritucil 
nature. 

The care which preserves the materials for a people's 
history, is characteristic only of advanced stages of civili- 
zation, and a high degree of social and intellectual cul- 
ture. The barbarous passions that crave merely present 



gratification, and the engrossing spirit of trade, that heeds 
only the prospect of pecuniary gain, are alike unmindful of 
the connection that subsists between a nation's history and 
a nation's character. Wealth and power may rear costly 
monuments to the memories of the great ; the bard of a 
rude age may celebrate in mythic verse the achievements 
of heroism and courage ; but the collection of the scattered 
memorials of the past, the nice and discriminating research 
into its obscure recesses, and the writing of history, such 
history as may instruct mankind, these are never accom- 
plished until society has made j^rogress in social and mo- 
ral culture, until out of the mighty mass of its baser pas- 
sions and perishable interests there has sprung an intel- 
lectual spirit — a sense that craves a deeper wisdom than 
the voices of the living world can ever teach. It is then 
that we study the characters of the past, and reproduce 
them in the present. 

" We give in charge 
Their names to the sweet lyre. The historic muse, 
Proud of the treasure, marches with it down 
To latest times; and sculpture, in her turn, 
Gives bond in stone and ever-during brass. 
To guard them and to immortalize her trust." 

It is the appropriate object of an Historical Society to 
collect and preserve all the relics of the past, that may 
serve as materials for history. This object, when liberal- 
ly prosecuted , cannot fail to exert the most salutary influ- 
ences, not only upon those immediately engaged in its 
accomplishment, but upon the whole spirit of a commu- 
nity. It leads us along the checkered course of human 
affairs. It conducts us through the successive experi- 
ments that have been made in politics and morals ; the 
changes of social condition, of language and of manners; 
the controversies that have agitated society, and the en- 
terprises that have resulted in its comfort and improve- 
ment ; and it brings to our notice all that has affected the 



interests of humanity within the sphere to which it more 
especially relates. This object, in all civilized lands, has 
at all times been regarded as of the highest importance. 
Not only does its successful accomplishment ensure accu- 
racy and completeness to the labors of the historian, but 
it also suggests innumerable topics to the philosopher and 
moralist, and sheds new light upon the mysterious pro- 
blems of man's social progress and destiny. 

But in this country, especially, the objects which as- 
sociations like ours have in view, address themselves 
with still more commanding interest to the attention of 
the scholar and the citizen, and ally themselves even more 
closely with the well-being and improvement of society. 
I speak not now of the shadowy period which elapsed 
before the settlement of America began, fraught with curi- 
ous interest, and fruitful of mighty problems though it be. 
The researches of the antiquarian traveller are just dis- 
closing the burial place of its perished races, and lifting the 
veil of oblivion from the ruins of its wonderful civiliza- 
tion. Without reference, however, to this remote antiqui- 
ty, so filled with mysteries and marvels, and so overwhelm- 
ing by its vastness, there are subjects enough of tran- 
scendent interest, in the origin and progress of our own 
civilization, which has sprung up and borne its astonishing 
fruits upon these trans-atlantic shores. It is indeed of re- 
cent origin, but it is of peculiar character. It was en- 
grafted upon this wild continent from the world's best 
stock. Its earliest eras are comparatively of yesterday ; 
but its growth and development have been marked by 
great events, and illustrated by deeds and characters of 
the loftiest heroism. It has given a new continent to the 
dominion of the Anglo-Saxon race, and has opened here, 
for the language, the laws, and the religion of our British 
forefathers, the path to a destiny more glorious and sub- 
lime, than has ever been recorded in the annals of man- 
kind. The origin and history of this peculiar civilization, 



the early struggles it maintained with the perils of the wil- 
derness and the hostility of savages, the virtues that adorn- 
ed its character, and the men who pioneered its progress, 
these and all their innumerable relationships and results, 
are subjects that demand the careful and reverent study of 
the American people. That such subjects be thoroughly 
investigated and the memorials relating to them be care- 
fully treasured up, may be of unspeakable benefit to the 
futm-e fortunes of mankind. No toil, whether of hands 
or of minds: no expenditure, whether of effort or of 
wealth, that may be required to do this, will be bestowed 
in vain. 

Nor is the influence which such inquiries exert upon 
the spirit and character of a people to be lightly estimat- 
ed. It liberalizes their aims, breaks down their prejudices, 
elevates and ennobles their interests, and enlarges their 
sympathy with the changeful fortunes of the common hu- 
manity. The English moralist has well remarked, that 
" whatever withdraws us from the power of the senses, 
and makes the past, the distant, or the future predominate 
over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking 
beings." Now it is precisely this influence which historic 
studies, above all other pursuits, are particularly fitted to 
exert. They serve to multiply the ties which bind a peo- 
ple to an honored ancestry, and to rally with new energy, 
their hopes and afiections around the brilliant eras of their 
history, and the monuments which record the struggles of 
patriotism or the triumj)hs of freedom. They call back 
the buried forms, the forgotten achievements, the vanished 
scenes of a departed age, and cause them to move again, 
in a brilliant and impressive panorama, before the mind of 
the present generation. They thus mingle the interests 
and images of other times with the engrossing cares and 
pursuits that now occupy our attention, and, amid the 
wrecks of departed ages, they read to us lessons of the 
truest practical wisdom. By thus opening to the minds 



of a people the fountains of their early history, may be 
best secured that unity of national character and that 
high-toned national spirit, Avhich more than armies or na- 
vies, more than legislative codes or written constitutions, 
preserve from decay the institutions of a country. " These 
noble studies," as Milton has said of kindred pursuits, "are 
of power to imbreed and cherish in a great people the 
seeds of virtue and public civility," They interpret the 
prophetic voices of the past, and by clothing each familiar 
spot, each ruin, and hill-top, and river, with the associa- 
tions of history, they increase and justify the feelings of 
veneration and pride with which the patriot clings to 
the institutions of his country. 

No sooner does a nation become indifferent to her histo- 
ry, than her national spirit begins to decline. The chain 
of consanguinity which runs through successive genera- 
tions and binds them in perpetual union, is broken asun- 
der. The State, no longer venerated as a parent, is sub- 
jected to the experiments of wretched empirics, or, it 
maybe, is turned adrift on the wild sea of revolution, with 
no principles of inherited wisdom to guide her, no lights 
of the storied past to shine upon her wayward course. — 
Modern times have furnished, at least, one memorable ex- 
ample of this truth, in the phrenzied struggles of revolu- 
tionary France, and that one example, it may be hoped, 
is enough for all ages. It seemed as though to her, her 
whole previous existence as a nation were utterly useless, 
and almost as though time had rolled his course in vain. In 
her proud self-conceit, she heeded none of the lessons of 
her own, or of others' experience. From the ages of her 
national glory, from the brilliant rallying-points of her his- 
tory, she turned away, in contempt, to pursue the glittering 
phantoms of an upstart, impracticable philosophy. The 
altars of her ancient religion she threw down, and from the 
proudest spots of her soil, she removed the monuments of 
early patriotism and valor, hallowed by the associations of 
2 



10 

centuries, that she might set up there the blood-stained 
emblems of her fanatical, atheistical republic. It was 
said by one of her own statesmen, with almost literal truth, 
that " you might alter the whole political frame of the gov- 
ernment in France, with greater ease than you could in- 
troduce the most insignificant change into the customs or 
even the fashions of England." 

But the labors of an Historical Society are of more 
particular benefit in their specific connection with the of- 
fice of the historian. Their object is to provide the ma- 
terials of which history is to be composed. In this coun- 
try, especially, this is a work which private associations 
must do. The government, whether of the States or 
the nation, has hitherto done but little to rescue from 
oblivion the minuter materials for our national history. 
They must be discovered and brought together, and pre- 
pared for the historian's use, by private efforts alone, or 
they will perish forever. It is thus only that the narra- 
tives of American history can be raised to that higher 
standard of truth and accuracy, which shall make them 
faithful exponents of the real progress of the nation. 
Lord Bacon has remarked, that ^'nothing is so seldom 
found among the writings of men, as true and perfect civil 
history." And the remark is scarcely less applicable to 
the Avritings of our own age, than of that in which it was 
uttered. A part, however, of the imperfection which it 
implies, may be remedied, by a nicer and more discrimi- 
nating research, a more careful collection and preservation 
of all the materials that can illustrate the spirit or the facts 
of an age or a nation. 

But, after all, what is written history but the exponent 
and suggester of that which is not, and which cannot be 
written ? The events that no pen records, always far out- 
number those contained on the historic page ; and there are 
a multitude of characters haunting tlie mysterious cham- 
bers of the past, whom no artist has ever sketched for the 



11 

picture galleries of history. This fact the historian must 
keep constantly in view, and he must write in such a man- 
ner as to concentrate and preserve the spirit of the whole 
in the part which he records. For this purpose, he must 
pursue innumerable investigations, whose results he can- 
not use ; he must thread many a labyrinth of controversy 
which will not yield him a single fact, and he must study 
the lives and deeds of men whose names even, will not ap- 
pear in the pages of his writings. It is only in accordance 
with this principle, that historical accuracy has ever been 
secured. Herodotus, the father of this species of compo- 
sition, spent years in travelling over many lands, in con- 
versing with their various inhabitants, in gathering up 
their scattered traditions and legends, and in extracting from 
them all, whatever could illustrate the times of which he 
wrote, ere he delivered his immortal work to his assem- 
bled countrymen, at the games of Greece. Gibbon de- 
voted the enthusiasm of youth, and the best energies of 
manhood, to delving in the lore of classic antiquity. He 
studied the doctrines of every philosophic school, the 
principles of every art and every science, and " crossed and 
re-crossed, again and again, the gloomy gulf that separates 
the ancient from the modern world," and gathered the re- 
lics of many a perished race and liroken dynasty, ere he 
was prepared to write the Decline and Fall of the Roman 
Empire. And the historian of modern Europe informs 
us, that his recent brilliant work on the French Revolution 
was the result of fourteen years of travelling and study, 
and of fourteen more devoted to the labors of composition. 
There is also another respect in which the collections oi 
an association like ours, are of essential service to the his- 
torian. It is not always the most splendid events that 
do most in moulding the character of an age, or in shaping 
the destiny of a people. The mightiest streams of politi- 
cal or of moral influence often spring from some humble 
fountain, embosomed in the retreats of private life, and 



12 

quite shut out from the notice of the mere general inqui- 
rer. To these sequestered places the historian must pene- 
trate, by the aid of the minutest investigation, and of the 
most comprehensive generalizations. In doing this, his 
first resort is to the collections which others have made, to 
the materials which have been provided ready to his hand. 
He uses them and makes them tributary to the lessons he 
would teach, in accordance with the same higli principle as 
that on which the philosophic astronomer employs the re- 
sults of the humble observer who nightly watches the stars, 
and chronicles the silent changes through which they 
pass. As, in comparative anatomy, a single disconnected 
bone reveals to the naturalist the structure and habits of 
a race of animals that has been extinct for ages ; so, oft- 
en, the mutilated record of some forgotten manuscript, 
the neglected work of some ancient chronicler, will open 
to the historian the whole history of an age, and enable 
him to revive its spirit and exhibit '' its very form and 
pressure." Thucydides has sketched, in glowing colors, 
the revolutions of the States of Greece ; but could some 
Athenian letters, written by the patriots who lived during 
the terrific era he describes, now be rescued from the obliv- 
ion to which they have passed, they might reveal to us 
the scenes of Corcyra or of Corinth, the motives of states- 
men and the springs of revolution, far more fully than 
they can now be gathered even from the pages of the most 
graphic of historians. And, to take a more familiar ex- 
ample, he who would thoroughly understand the social 
spirit and character of the early settlers of our own Prov- 
idence Plantations, must have recourse not to the provi- 
sions of the first or the second charter, nor even to the rec- 
ords of the town alone, but to the scattered documents 
that describe their strifes with the people at Pawtuxet, and 
their endless disputes about bounds, and about the meaning 
of the famous words " up stream without limits," in the 
sachem's original deed : or to the singular paper which 



13 

Roger Williams submitted to the town, entitled " consid- 
erations touching rates." It is from these, and such as 
these, the incidental relics of things that have passed 
away forever, that the historian forms his conception 
of an age, and spreads it forth upon his pictured 
page. 

But collections like these of which I am speaking, 
are not only of essential service to the historian ; they 
also enable the reader to verify the statements, to enlarge 
and extend the views contained in history itself. How 
many theories have been exploded, how many misrepre- 
sentations have been corrected, long after they have been 
chronicled in history, by the subsequent researches of 
more diligent or impartial inquirers ! Hume was for a 
long time regarded as the almost perfect embodiment of 
philosophical impartiality, and his "History of England" 
was read with universal delight, as the authentic narrative 
of the proud march of the English people from barbarism to 
civilization, through the checkered fortunes of their career. 
But the researches of later inquirers, and especially the pub- 
lication of documentary details, relating to the more impor- 
tant periods of which he treats, have cast a shadow over his 
historic fame, which is growing deeper and deeper with 
every succeeding generation. The inimitable qualities of 
his style, and the charming grace of his manner, will long 
make his great work the delight of all who read English his- 
tory ; but it is only when its errors have been corrected, its 
partial representations extended, its cold indiflerence to the 
interests of humanity animated with philanthropic sen- 
timent and generous sympathy, that it becomes a safe 
guide to the true principles of the English Constitution, 
or the real fortunes of the English nation. 

We may recur, for other illustrations, to the history of 
our own State, at a period within the recollection of some 
who are present to day. All are familiar with the fact 
that Rhode-Island was the last of the thirteen States to 



14 

adopt the Federal Constitution and to join the union which 
had been formed. But how small a portion of the real 
history of that event, is this single fact ! There is here 
no explanation of the causes of this reluctant assent ; no 
illustration of the influences which were at work to blind 
the people to the true dignity and happiness of the State. 
It is only when we leave the historic rccordj and go back 
to the scattered chronicles of the day, or converse with 
the aged men who still live to describe it, that we can 
form any adequate conception of the conflicting passions 
which then rent our little republic, on this engrossing ques- 
tion. Many a quiet citizen of the present day, who glo- 
ries in the constitution of his country, would hear, with as- 
tonishment, of the strifes which agitated this State at the 
period of its adoption : when town and country were in 
arms against each other, and military oflicers, and even 
legislators and judges, assembled with a rustic mob to pre- 
vent by violence the civil rejoicings which the success of 
the constitution in other States called forth among the 
people of Providence ! 

Other illustrations, without number, might be adduced, 
to show how much of our kno^v^ledge of the spirit and 
progress of a people, depends upon collecting and careful- 
ly treasuring up all the materials for composing, illustrat- 
ing and explaining their history. But I need not dwell 
upon these familiar and well established views, respecting 
the importance of historic studies. In other countries, 
they have created a deep and wide-spread interest, they 
have received the fostering care of government, and have 
resulted in the accumulation of the most magnificent trea- 
sures of historic lore. The rich collections of the King's 
Library at Paris, of the British Museum at London, of the 
splendid libraries at Copenhagen and Gottingen, at Berlin 
and Vienna ; each containing, on an average, nearly 
400,000 volumes, show how much has been done to keep 
the past from being forgotten, and to preserve all its impor- 



15 

tant facts and teachings, and even its evanescent spirit, for 
the future instruction and guidance of mankind. What 
event in the history of modern Europe cannot there be iihis- 
trated ! What age cannot there be revived ! The visiter 
to these stupendous cohections of books and manuscripts, 
as he Avandcrs amazed through their crowded alcoves, 
sees piled on every side around him, all that the dili- 
gence of man, aided by princely munificence and im- 
perial power, has been able to rescue from tlie mighty 
wrecks of the past ; and he feels a generous pride in the 
thought, that so much at least is safe, of all which gifted 
genius has created, or which the race of man has suffer- 
ed and achieved, through the long centuries of its exist- 
ence. 

Our own country, though far behind the leading na- 
tions of Europe in her collections of books, has however 
begun to cultivate a most worthy and commendable in- 
terest in the monuments of her early history. Every- 
thing pertaining to the planting and the early growth of 
the settlements of America, has at length acquired a high 
value, and is becoming a matter of universal demand. It 
can now no longer be said that the richest collections of 
materials for American history are in foreign lands, shut 
up in the libraries of princes or of curious scholars, or 
sealed away in the Plantation OiRces of the British gov- 
ernment. They are here in the heart of New-England, 
where they have been gathered by the munificence of 
private citizens, and the enlightened agency of our literary 
institutions, and here they must remain forever. 

The numerous Historical Societies which have been 
formed in this country, furnish also another most gratify- 
ing proof of the growing interest in all that pertains to 
American History. The Massachusetts Historical So- 
ciety was founded in 1790. During the period which has 
since elapsed, it has published twenty-seven volumes 
of its Collections. It has accumulated, by its researches, 



16 

a library of books and manuscripts of immense value, and 
has set on foot inquiries and historic labors, whose influ- 
ence has been felt in every part of the land. At later 
periods, similar societies have been established in the 
others of the New-England States, in New- York, Penn- 
sylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Georgia, each 
one of which has contributed something for the illustration 
or the enriching of our local or general history. Of these, 
the society in New- York is by far the most liberal in its 
resources and aims, and the most active and diligent in 
its inquiries. It has published six volumes of Col- 
lections, pertaining to the history of its own State, and is 
at this moment prosecuting its objects, with a zeal and 
enterprise which give full assurance that all that has ever 
been achieved, in earlier or in later days, by the sturdy 
settlers of the New-Netherlands or their persevering suc- 
cessors, will be duly chronicled on the pages of American 
history. 

But the history of no State in the Union, we may safe- 
ly say, presents claims upon the attention and study of 
her citizens, so strong as does that of Rhode-Island. Her 
origin was peculiar, and her position among the States of 
New-England was marked, for many generations, by the 
same peculiarity. The three divisions of the State, the 
Plantations of Providence, the settlement at Aquetneck,and 
the settlement at Warwick, were first peopled by those who 
had been driven from the neighboring colonies for opin- 
ion's sake. Though differing in almost every other respect, 
they were entirely agreed in maintaining the one great 
principle which persecution had taught them, the inalien- 
able freedom of the conscience, the underived, uncharter- 
ed independence of the human soul. In others of their 
political and ethical opinions, they partook of the errors of 
their time, other interests of society they may even have 
neglected, but in their perception and application of tliii^ 
principle — the basis of all real freedom — they strode far be- 



17 

fore the age to which they belonged. They seemed 
to their contemporaries to be pursuing, with reckless 
zeal, a startling and impracticable paradox ; but they felt, 
themselves, the greatness of the mission they were appoint- 
ed to accomplish — to found a refuge for "true soul liber- 
ty," to hold forth to. mankind the first " lively experi- 
ment, that a most flourishing civil State may stand, and be 
best maintained, with a full liberty in religious concern- 
ments." This noble purpose they adhered to with a te- 
nacity that never yielded — with a consistency that never 
was marred, amidst the penury and the privations of the wil- 
derness, amidst the scorn and the persecutions of all their 
neighbors. The colony, from the first, in the language 
of the settlers at Newport, was "a birth and breeding of 
the Most High." Here, "beyond the chartered grasp of 
civilized man," it was founded by "an outcast people," 
who gloried most in " bearing with the several judgments 
and consciences of each other in all the towns of the col- 
ony." In this consisted the peculiarity of Rhode-Island. 
In this, the fundamental principle of her society, she stood 
forth in the age, single and alone — nee viget quidquam 
simile, aut secundum. 

This peculiarity in her early character, made her the 
object of incessant suspicion and distrust, and, at length, 
arrayed against her the combined legislation and proscrip- 
tion of all the other colonies of New-England. They 
chose to regard her as a heterodox, and almost as an out- 
law State, whose interests and happiness they might 
prey upon at pleasure, and without rebuke. They laid 
claim to her territory, and extended their jurisdiction over 
her people, and well nigh crushed her in her very cra- 
dle. Massachusetts passed a law forbidding the inhabi- 
tants of Providence from coming to her towns, and when 
a respected clergyman of Newport, with two companions, 
went to visit an aged member of his church, resident at 
Lynn, he was seized by the beadles of the town, while 
5? 



18 

preaching on the Sabhath, at the house of his friend, and 
was punished, under sentence of the court, by a heavy fine 
and imprisonment, with the aUernative of being publicly 
whipped ! The fine was paid without the good man's 
knowledge or consent, and he was released from prison. — 
One of his companions, however, was still retained in con- 
finement, and when set at liberty, was Avhipped with thir- 
ty stripes, inflicted with that merciless severity which 
heresy alone could have provoked. Under the operation of 
this exclusive policy, which was adopted by the neighbor- 
ing colonies, the inhabitants of Rhode-Island were not 
only cut off from the trade of the country, but were often 
obliged to forego the comforts and the common necessa- 
ries of life. This hostility, Avhich, from the beginning, 
had characterized the intercourse of the other settlements 
with the fathers of Rhode-Island, in 1643, Avas embodied 
in the confederacy. which was established among the colo- 
nies of New-England. The leading object of this confed- 
eracy was the mutual protection of its members against 
the Indians, whose hostility was threatened on every side, 
and against the rising settlements of the French and the 
Dutch, with whom England was then frequently at war. 
The circumstances of its formation are worthy of a mo- 
ment's particular consideration. The contracting parties 
ta the league, were the colonies of Massachusetts and Ply- 
mouth, of New-Haven and Connecticut, each of which, 
by its Commissioners, signed the articles at Boston, on the 
19th of May, 1643. This union, Rhode-Island was not 
invited to join, and subsequently, at her OAvn application 
to be admitted a member, she was deliberatehj refused ad- 
mission ; an act which, taken in all its circumstances, stands 
out among the most unchristian and inhuman, recorded in 
Puritan history, in whose strange records are so often 
blended the direst atrocity and the loftiest virtue. Here 
was an infant, feeble colony, situated between two pow- 
erful races of savages — the Wampanoags on the east, and 



19 

the Narragansetts on the west — and separated by the wide 
Atlantic, from the mother conntry. Its people were of the 
same Anglo-Saxon stock, and professed the same protestant 
faith with their neighbors. They had come from England 
in the same ships, which bore the colonists of Plymouth 
and Boston, of New-Haven and Hartford. Like them, 
they had lighted the lires of civilization in the wilderness, 
and, by their beneficent influence with the Indians, they 
had, more than once, saved the whole country from the 
desolations of savage war. Yet it was all in vain. They 
had adopted the startling heresy, that men are responsible 
for their opinions, to God alone — that the civil power may 
not interfere in religions concernments — and that before 
the law of the land, all should alike be equal — whether 
Protestants or Papists — whether Jews or Turks. For this 
opinion, which they had dared to proclaim, and to carry 
into practice, they Avere placed beneath the ban of universal 
proscription, and were deliberately excluded from the alli- 
ance and the sympathies of the whole civilization of 
the country — to perish, it might be, from the wastings of 
starvation and disease, or amid the terrors of Indian mas- 
sacre and conflagration. 

At a recent celebration of the era of this confederacy, 
in a neighboring State, a distinguished and venerable ora- 
tor* discoursed, with more of rhetoric than of truth, con- 
cerning what he was pleased to term " the conscientious, 
contentious spirit" of the early fathers of Rhode-Island. 
But to what manner of spirit shall we attribute this 
act of the Puritans of New-England, by which a chris- 
tian colony, of their own brethren, was deprived of all 
the benefits of their neighborhood, and left unpro- 
tected in the wilderness, to contend with merciless sav- 
ages, and struggle alone " against necessity's sharp pinch !" 
Was it mere indiflerence to the fate of those whom 
they deemed heretics and outcasts ? Or was it the 

"* See Note A. 



20 

vain hope, that by the pressure of want, or the threats of 
Indian massacre, the colony would yield to her confede- 
rate neighbors, and quietly submit to be partitioned among 
their several jurisdictions ? Whichever of these may have 
been the motive, the act itself bespeaks a dark and malig- 
nant bigotry, which cannot be veiled, and for which it is 
in vain to apologize — a bigotry which, indeed, need not 
be dwelt upon, amid the general blaze of Puritan virtues, 
but which we may well be proud to think, has left no 
traces of its existence in the history or the character of 
Rhode-Island. 

How different from all this, is the spirit which charac- 
terized her legislation, even at the same gloomy periods of 
New-England History ! In turning to consider it, we seem 
to have advanced a whole age in the progress of civil and 
intellectual freedom. Take a single illustration. In 
1656, Massachusetts commenced the persecution of the 
(iuakers, which soon extended through all New-England. 
Banished from every other Colony, they fled to Rhode- 
Island, where, though they had but few sympathies with 
the inhabitants, they were kindly received, and were ad- 
mitted to all the privileges of citizens and freemen. But the 
Commissioners of the United Colonies hunted them even 
here. In two several appeals, they urged the authorities 
of this colony, by every motive which could be addressed 
to the self-interest of a community, to join in the general 
persecution. But with what dignity does the Legislature 
reply : "As concerning these (Quakers, (so called,) which 
are now among us, we have no law whereby to punish 
any for only declaring, by words, their minds and under- 
standings, concerning the things and ways of God, as to 
salvation and an eternal condition." And, when finding 
all persuasives vain, the Commissioners, irritated at her 
inflexible adherence to her noble principles, threaten to 
suspend all intercourse, and thus dry up the very sources 
of subsistence to the colony, the Assembly calmly make 



21 

their appeal to " his Highness and honorable council" in 
England, and, through their agent, ask that they "may 
not be compelled to exercise any civil power over men's 
consciences, so long as human orders, in point of civility, 
are not corrupted or violated ; which," say they, " our 
neighbors about us do frequently practise, whereof many 
of us have large experience^ and do judge it to be no less 
than a point of absolute cruelty. ^^ 

Now, look along the history of mankind, up to the lat- 
ter half of the seventeenth century, and where else do 
you find that language like this had ever proceeded from 
a legislative assembly ? Yet, strange to say, the age was 
pre-eminently distinguished for its attention to religious 
truth and to the rights of conscience. England was rent 
by civil wars, of which these rights were professed as 
the sustaining principle. Her people were divided into 
four great parties, the Roman Catholics, the Episcopa- 
lians, the Presbyterians, and the Independents, all of whom 
were contending for what they called freedom of con- 
science ; and many a noble spirit had been offered up as a 
sacrifice to the cause, on the scaffold, or on the field of 
battle. Here, too, upon the barren coasts of New-Eng- 
land, were hardy settlements, just springing into vigorous 
existence, each of which had been planted for the free- 
dom of the conscience. Yet on a closer inspection, the free- 
dom which all were pursuing, proves to be freedom only 
for themselves, not for others. It was freedom to rear their 
own altars and to offer their own worship. Beyond this it 
did not go. And the student of history turns from them all ; 
from the religious parties then struggling for ascendancy 
in England, and from the colonies which had sprung up on 
the shores of America, and finds here alone, in a colony 
which had been neglected by her mother and despised 
by all her sisters, the solitary refuge for true soul-liberty — 
that unlimited intellectual freedom, higher than mere 
toleration — which makes all opinions equal in the eye of 



the law, and which forbids the civil power to touch the 
inviolable sanctuary of the conscience. 

Thus peculiar — far more so than has been generally un- 
derstood — was the spirit of the early fathers of this State. 
The memorials of their labors, of their legislation, of their 
sufferings for the maintenance of this principle — which 
they alone of all the world, understood and cherished — are 
worthy of the minutest inquiry. They cannot be too 
thoroughly explored, or too carefully treasured up in the 
depositories of historic lore. 

But, in addition to the greatness and value of the princi- 
ples at issue, there is another consideration, which urges 
us perhaps, still more strongly, to the careful collection and 
preservation of the materials, especially for our early his- 
tory. It is found in the fact, that these principles, and the 
characters of the men who here asserted them, have been 
singularly misrepresented and misunderstood. The liter- 
ature of New-England, at that day, was confined to Mas- 
sachusetts and Plymouth, and their early annalists seem 
never to have dreamed, that a faithful narrative of the 
planting and growth of this heterodox colony, where all 
sorts of consciences were tolerated, would ever be of the 
slightest interest or benefit to mankind. Hence it hap- 
pened, that our early history became known to the world, 
mainly through the imperfect sketches of Winthrop or 
Hubbard, tlie prejudiced statements of Morton, the con- 
troversial sarcasms of Mr. Cotton, and the ridiculous, and 
sometimes vulgar jibes, of Cotton Mather. Many of these 
misrepresentations have been corrected by subsequent 
writers, in the same States from which they emanated ; 
and the fame of Rhode-Island has been brightened by 
their labors. But she still appeals to her own sons, for a 
fuller vindication — she claims it for the lessons she has 
taught them — for the inheritance of freedom she has trans- 
mitted to them. From these eminences in her social pro- 
gress, to which she has attained, she points us back to the 



23 

scattered graves of her original Planters, and demands of us 
that we build monuments to their memory — that we guard 
their fame, and transmit their principles, undisguised and 
unperverted, in the imperishable records of history. 

Among these early fathers of the State, I may here men- 
tion one, whose fame has been too much neglected, but 
whose character has descended to us, in the memory of 
his deeds, embalmed with the purest associations of devo- 
ted patriotism, and exalted virtue. I refer to Dr. John 
Clarke, of Newport — the associate of Roger Williams — 
the procurer of the second Charter — the tried friend of the 
colony, at a time when friendsliip for her was the sacrifice 
of all else that New-England had to bestow. His life 
ought long ago to have been written, and every lineament 
of his pure and spotless character, on which even enmity 
and envy have fastened no reproach, should have been 
held forth to the respect and admiration of those who en- 
joy the fruits of his labors. A scholar, bred probably at 
one of England's ancient Universities — a physician, ac- 
customed to the practice of his profession in the circles of 
the British Metropolis — a teacher of religion, despised and 
persecuted by those among whom lie had cast his lot — he 
came hither, the mild and benignant advocate of religious 
freedom, and, next to the exiled founder of Providence, 
was the Iraest friend, and the most generous benefactor of 
Rhode-Island. For twelve troubled years he resided in 
England as the representative of the colony, supporting 
himself during all this period, by his own labors, and by the 
mortgage of his estate in Newport. He was an intimate 
associate of many of the eminent men of the time, and 
was doubtless a witness of many of the stirring scenes of 
the English revolution. By his unwavering fidelity, by his 
winning manners, and his diplomatic skill, he maintained 
the rights of the colony, amid the changes and tumults of 
a revolutionary age, and at length, upon the restoration of 
the Stuarts, he succeeded in obtaining from the second 



Charles, that Charter of civil government jWhich has shaped 
the institutions of the State, and identified itself with all 
her glory. The disinterested benevolence which had ani- 
mated his life, still lighted up its closing hours. He died 
at Newport, in 1676, and, in his last will, bequeathed a 
handsome estate " for the relief of the poor, and the bring- 
ing up of children unto learning." 

" Peace to the just man's memory — let it grow 

Greener with years, and blossom through the flight 

Of ages ; let the mimic canvass show 

His calm benevolent features ; let the light 

Stream on his deeds of love that shunned the sight 

Of all but Heaven ; and in the book of fame, 

The glorious record of his virtues write, 

And hold it up to men, and bid them claim 

A palm like his, and catch from him the hallowed flame." 

I have referred more particularly to the early periods of 
the history of Rhode-Island, in illustrating the peculiarity 
of her position, and the value of her fame. But other pe- 
riods are equally replete with historic interest, and pre- 
sent scarcely fewer claims upon the attention and the study 
of her sons. Her participation in the struggles of the 
Revolution has not yet been fully told. All that may il- 
lustrate the services she rendered the cause of national 
independence, whether by legislation or by arms ; all that 
embodies the spirit that made her the nursery of heroic 
commanders and of brave troops ; and all that may explain 
her reluctant adoption of the Federal Constitution, or 
the origin and growth of her great social interests — her 
commerce and her manufactures — her education and her 
religion — all these should be faithfully explored and care- 
fully garnered up, away from the reach of oblivion. 

There is also another period, equally important to the 
fame of the State, and it may be equally instructive in 
its lessons for mankind, the memorials of which we, of 
the present generation, are especially bound to preserve 
from decay. I refer to the recent civil controversy, whose 



25 

furious passions have scarcely yet died away. Whatever 
may be the opinions we entertain respecting it, all will 
admit the importance of treasuring up every thing that 
can explain its origin and issue, or illustrate its spirit and 
character. We owe it to the State, whose bosom has been 
rent, and whose peace has been distm'bed — and we owe 
it scarcely less to the nation, whose interests are involved 
in the principles at issue, to see to it that its history be 
faithfully written — not with the pen of partisan passion, 
or beneath the narrowing influence of political prejudice; 
but that it be written in the light of the Constitution, 
with the spirit of calm philosophy and discriminating re- 
search. Let every thing pertaining to it be carefully pre- 
served, that, "\v^hen in a future age, after our petty inter- 
ests shall have perished, and our short-lived passions shall 
have died away, the historian shall come to trace the 
causes of these unhappy strifes, he may find here the 
means of thoroughly understanding the principles at issue 
between the contending parties, and the spirit and the 
acts that have marked the character of each, as well as the 
issue that has sprung from the angry passions that have 
been so deeply stirred. Thus let the cause be committed 
to the tribunals of posterity. Let there be materials for re- 
moving every blot that may have been cast upon the es- 
cutcheon of the State — of refuting every calumny that has 
been uttered against her fair fame — that the truth, the 
simple unvarnished truth, may alone be committed to the 
records of history. 

For purposes such as these, has the Rhode-Island His- 
torical Society been established. It dates back to the 
year 1822, and in the order of time it was the fourth in- 
stitution of the kind established in the United States. It 
owes its origin to the spirit and activity of a few true- 
hearted sons of Rhode-Island, who chanced to meet in 
the office of a gentleman,* whose historic zeal, even then 

* Hon. William R. Staples, Author of the " Annals of Providence." 

4 



26 

distinguished, has since led him onward to the most com- 
mendable labors, and the most valuable results. It was 
in the course of their conversation that the suggestion 
was first made of a Society, whose aim should be to col- 
lect and preserve, for the use of the historian, the scattered 
memorials of the successive periods of our progress as a 
Colony and a State. The suggestion was speedily car- 
ried into effect, and this Society commenced its useful ca- 
reer. Twenty-two years have since elapsed, and, amidst 
many discouragements, it has gone steadily forward in 
the prosecution of its worthy aims. Though it has nev- 
er occupied a conspicuous place in the public estimation, 
and its active supporters have always been few, yet it 
has already done essential service in the illustration of the 
spirit and the characters that belong to our early annals. 
It has published five volumes of its Collections, and has 
garnered up in its archives a large mass of materials, 
which have already rendered valuable aid to writers of 
American history, and among which the future historian 
of the State or of the country, will find all that now re- 
mains of many a forgotten era of the past. Through the 
agency of a succession of indefatigable Secretaries and 
Directors, the Society has maintained an extensive and 
useful correspondence with similar associations in this 
country and in foreign lands. Its correspondence has 
rendered signal aid to the antiquarians of Denmark, in 
their attempts to decipher those mysterious inscriptions up- 
on the rocky shores of New-England, which seem to point 
back to the visit of some unknown voyagers, centuries 
before the heroic enterprize of Columbus. The aid 
which was thus received has been acknowledged with 
grateful applause by this learned association, in the Aw 
tiquitates Americana, — the magnificent work, in which 
they have embodied their researches respecting the ante- 
Columbian periods of American history. 

After many efforts and long delays, the Society, aided in 



27 

part by private munificence, has at length been able to rear 
the modest structm'e, whose completion we have to-day 
come up to celebrate. We have watched its progress, from its 
commencement to its final consummation. In hope and in 
joy, we now set it apart to the purposes for which it has 
been erected. We dedicate it to the muse of history — 
" the muse of saintly aspect, and awful form," who ever 
watches over the fortunes of men, and guards the virtues 
of humanity. We wish it to be a place of secure and per- 
petual deposit, where, beyond the reach of accident, or the 
approach of decay, we may accumulate all the materials 
for our yet unwritten history. We would gather here, 
all that can illustrate the early planting, or the subsequent 
growth of our State — the lives of its founders and settlers — 
the manuscripts of its departed worthies — the history of its 
towns — its glorious proclamations of religious liberty, and 
its heroic sacrifices, both in peace and in Avar. We would 
also gather here, the few remaining relics of the long per- 
ished race of Canonicus and Miantonomo, and keep them 
as precious memorials of men, who, though untaught in 
the lessons of civilized benevolence, received to their rude 
hospitality, the fathers of the State, when christian pil- 
grims persecuted and banished them. We would also de- 
posit here, every thing that is connected with the inter- 
ests of society within the limits of the Commonwealth — 
the chronicles of every controversy — the organs of every 
party — the wretched sheet, that in its day was too worth- 
less to be read, if so be it illustrate the morals, the man- 
ners or the deeds of the time — and the most valuable 
volume in which genius and wisdom have embodied their 
immortal thoughts. We may hope, too, that within its al- 
coves, " rich with the spoils of time," may at length be 
seen the features and forms of the men, who in peace and 
in war, have reflected honor on the State, by the wisdom 
they have carried to the councils, or the glory they have 
added to the name of the country. Thus, distant genera- 



28 

tions may come up hither, and, while they study the memo- 
rials of the past, they may gaze upon the lineaments of the 
men whose names they have learned to identify with 
whatever is heroic in action, or dignified in character. 

It is to these objects, and to others such as these, that we 
dedicate this edifice,* wliich we liave reared in this friendly 
neighborhood of learning, as the depository of historic 
lore. They are liberal and noble objects, and worthy to 
command the respect, and enlist the efforts, of an enliglit- 
ened community. They are limited to no local bounds. 
They embrace the whole territory of the Commonwealth, 
and concern as intimately the settlements on Rhode- 
Island — the asylum from persecution at Warwick — the 
romantic legends of Mount Hope and Narragansett, as 
they do the Plantations of Providence. Whether they 
are ever fully accomplished, will depend on the efforts 
which the members of this Society put forth, and upon the 
sympathy and aid which we receive from our fellow citizens 
tliroiighout the State. We invite, therefore, the co-opera- 
tion of a]], in carrying forward the work which we liave 
begun, and of which somuchremaijis tobe accomplished. 
The State is the common parent of us all, and her fame 
should be dear to us all. That fame, wliich two hundred 
years have established, has at length been committed to 
us, to guard and to perpetuate. Let us be faithful to the 
trust ; and in tlie temple which literary genius may rear 
to American History, let us erect an humble shrine, and 
dedicate it to Rhode-Island, and adorn it with her stain- 
less escutcheon of Religious Freedom. 

* See Note B. 



APPENDIX. 



Note A. 

The'second Centennial Anniversay of the New-England Confederation, 
was celebrated by the Massachusetts Historical Society, at Boston, on 
the 29th of IVlay, 1843. The Discourse on this occasion, was delivered by 
Hon. John Quincy Adams. In speaking of the several colonies that 
composed the confederation, the orator was obliged, of course, to refer to 
Ihe exclusion of Rhode-Island. He does this with all the adroitness of a 
skillful apologist for a shameful transaction. He simply mentions the 
fact, that she was refused admission into the New-England Union, with- 
out noticing the circumstances in which she was placed, or giving any 
opinion of the treatment she received. The following, is the passage to 
which allusion is more particularly made, in the preceding Address : 

" But there was yet another — a fifth New-England colony, denied ad- 
mission into the Union, and furnishing in its broadest latitude, the demon- 
stration of that conscientious, contentious spirit, which so signally char- 
acterized the English Puritans of the 17th century, the founders of New- 
England, of all the liberties of the British nation, and of the ultimate uni- 
versal freedom of the race of man." — p. 25. 

In the paragraphs immediately succeeding this passage, Mr. Adams 
presents a view of the events that led to the banishment of Roger Wil- 
liams, and to the settlement of Rhode-Island, which is believed to be pe- 
culiar to himself, and which cannot be regarded otherwise than as ex- 
ceedingly partial and inadequate, and as partaking of a license, quite be- 
yond " the freedom of history," 

It would be difficult to determine, in what sense the conduct of Roger 
Williams can be termed an " insurrection," or an " instigation to rebel- 
lion ;" and equally difficult, to ascertain what standard of humanity Mr. 
Adams had in his mind, when he vindicated the wintry exile of the 
Founder of Rhode-Island, as " mild treatment !" 



30 



Note B. 
CABINET OF THE RHODE-ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

This edifice, which is intended to be the permanent repository of the 
collections of the Rhode-Island Historical Society, is situate on Water- 
man street, in the immediate neighborhood of the Colleges belonging to 
Brown University. It is placed upon one of the most eligible sites in the 
city of Providence, commanding a deliglitful view of the University 
grounds, and, while easy of access, is more than usually exempt from the 
dangers of fire. 

The dimensions of the Cabinet, are as follows : thirty feet six inches 
front, by fifty feet six inches rear, and twenty-nine feet high from the 
ground to the top of the cornice. The base of this edifice is of granite, 
but the walls are of rubble stone, stuccoed and colored, to represent 
granite. 

The interior is very neatly finished, the whole being stuccoed, and 
ornamented with an entablature. The principal room contains galleries 
on three sides. Under the front gallery are two rooms, ten feet by twelve 
each. 

The lot of land on which the Cabinet stands, is eighty feet by one 
hundred feet, and is handsomely graded. It is enclosed by a substantial 
fence, and is decorated with trees, which, in the course of a few years, 
will give to the building an air of classic repose. 

The edifice was planned and built by Messrs. Tallman & Bucklin. 



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